Will Always Be There

Ch. VI

Hours later, the sun had set, and it was nighttime, the three continued walking. (Y/n) had stopped sniffling but sadness was still on her face.

Dororo looked at the two in worry. "Hey, aniki, one-san, are you two hungry?" he asked, trying to get them to talk.

But Hyakkimaru only shook his head slowly and (Y/n) didn't react. Dororo noticed that Hyakkimaru was still holding on to the pouch, and (y/n) had moved onto holding on to his sleeve, almost like a small child.

'Guess they both have other things to worry about' he thought sadly but tried again, "Say, aniki, you've never laughed before, have you?" He asked but Hyakkimaru ignored him. Dororo stopped in front of him with a smile on his face and tried to tickle him, but nothing happened. He was hoping that at least his sister would stop him or scold him, but even she didn't react. "Fine, be that way your whole lives, both of you, see if I care" Dororo sighed and continued walking. But Hyakkimaru stayed where he was, making (y/n) look at him in question, "Hyakkimaru?"

Then they heard voices from somewhere in the darkness.

"I'm never going back to my wife" they heard a man say, "I want to stay with you forever" Dororo and (y/n) start blushing, realizing what they were hearing

"Me too" a woman's voice was heard

"Get a room!" Dororo yelled and started throwing rocks everywhere, "get eaten by a boar! Take this, and this!"

(y/n) sweatdropped, "Dororo...stop you might hit us along with them"

Suddenly, a stick fell and hit the boy on the head, confusing the siblings. Dororo looked up and moved out of the way in time as a giant basket landed where he was standing.

(Y/n) blinked, "that came from...above" she muttered and looked up. Both she and Dororo screamed at what they saw. Alerting Hyakkimaru. He looked up and his eyes widened when he saw the color red. Hyakkimaru unsheathed his blades and ran up the tree. He jumped and slashed at the web, freeing the man.

"i-i-it's a...s-s-s-s-spider" (y/n) whimpered

"Hey, are you okay?" Dororo asked the man, but he was only chuckling in a sort of bliss, "what the heck? Has he lost his mind?"

"That s-s-spider must have injected a venom or something into him" (y/n) said and they looked up to Hyakkimaru.

He jumped to another tree, dodging the spiders' attack. He then lunged himself and managed to cut the spider, making her fall to the ground. As Hyakkimaru turned around, the spider landed on her back but managed to shoot a string of web at him, sending him back and trapping him up against a tree.

"Aniki!" Dororo grabbed a stick of the ground as he made his way to Hyakkimaru. The spider was taking this chance to flee.

Once the spider was out of sight, (y/n) let out of sigh a relief and ran up to the boys. Dororo was struggling to cut the web, which what was obvious since the stick wasn't sharp. "Here, let me" she said as she reached into her kimono and pulled out a small knife.

"you had that this whole time!?" Dororo asked as she cut the webbing and pulled the rest off Hyakkimaru. (Y/n) only nodded shyly

"Urg, whatever! Let's go!" Dororo said as he started running, Hyakkimaru right behind him

"w-wait! We're going after it!?"

"of course!" Dororo made it to a cliff but didn't see anything. "Come on out!" he yelled then sighed, "dang it. It got away" Hyakkimaru and (y/n) walked up to him, the short girl slightly relieved that the spider was gone. "Oh! Aniki! One-san! Look, there's a village down there"